My flat in Milazzo

My room in the shared flat is upstairs from the language school on level two and is a little nun like, if nuns had balconies. It's basic and clean, a typical flat filled with leftover shampoo bottles and rubbish bags that we've all forgotten to put in the skip round the corner. There's no air-con so mostly it's pretty hot in the lounge but with the fan on at night it's fine, if not a tad noisy sleeping with the doors open to the balcony.

 The theory is to put the dishes straight into the cupboard after washing them

Our beautiful apartment building on Via Nino Royolo 20, Milazzo, Sicily

From my balcony I catch a glimpse of the sea and the hydrofoils heading to the islands of Lipari, Volcano, Stromboli etc and across the road to other people's lives led on their balconies; their cats, kids and laundry. Downstairs there's a Pizzeria that comes alive after dark and a takeaway that also collects young men on their scooters who sit and smoke and talk until I screw my earplugs deep into my ears at midnight until I can't hear them anymore. 

Passeggiata, that institution of the evening promenade, is not only for walkers; at about 6.30pm, my one way street fills up with mostly little cars whose drivers honk horns at each other because they've all decided to go for a little drive at the same time.